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	E-MAIL Tony@lathes.co.uk Home Machine Tool Archive Machine Tools For Sale & Wanted Machine Tool Manuals Machine Tool Catalogues Belts Myford ML7 LATHE Myford ML7 Photo Essay Myford Home Page Detailed Myford 7 Series Article Tri-lever ML7 ML7 Serial Numbers Rodney Milling Attachment Amolco Milling Attachment ML7R ML7 Capstan Accessories ML7 Rebuild Myford handbooks, spares etc can be provided: email for details When it was unveiled in August, 1946 (at £34, without a motor) the Myford ML7 lathe was greeted with astonishment. Here was a well-designed, compact lathe with a neatly built-on motor-countershaft unit, fully guarded belts and changewheels - and with a specification guaranteed to delight any model engineer who had struggled with the inadequate machines offered by a host of under-capitalised, smaller English machine-tool makers in the pre-war years. The concept was not, however, new for the same kind of integrated design had been introduced as long ago as 1932 in the form of the 9-inch Atlas (developed into the long-lived 10-inch model), and the neat little "6-inch" first made in 1937. An immediate sales success in both Britain and overseas many British customers, with an ex-Services gratuity burning a hole in their pocket, had to wait until vital export orders were fulfilled - the cry of the day being, "Export or Die" - and waiting lists ran to over 12 months. The lathe continued in production until 1979 and, because the design was so right to begin with, only very minor changes in specification were made over the years with the same design of cross and top slide units surviving until the late 1990s on the Super 7 based ML7R model. All Myford ML7 lathes included a K prefix in their serial number (other designations include the ML.5 Capstan lathe as the "F", the M.U. capstan as the "G", the M.L.6 capstan as "H" and the Myford/Drummond M-Type as "J"). The ML7R was not based on the ML7 but on the Super 7 - the model being created by leaving off the spindle clutch and fitting the less expensive cross and top slides from the ordinary ML7. A detailed description of the Myford ML7, and other Myford Series 7 and 10 models, can be found here, an interesting article about rebuilding an ML7 here and a photo essay about the ML7 here

Discovered unused in 2012, this ML7 is shown as delivered to the customer and requiring basic assembly

An unused ML7, found in its crate during 2012. The original paint having deteriorated in storage, the owner repainted in Myford colours. The only non-original point is that the Myford name on the headstock would have been picked out in cream paint.

Standard ML7
3.5" centre height and 20" between centres, backgeared and screwcutting.

Pride of ownership - a restored Myford ML7B with spindle clutch - the B suffice indicating a screwcutting gearbox

The ordinary maker's stand lack a door and collet storage - deficiencies easily overcome by many enthusiastic owners

Useful accessories: in the foreground a screwcutting metric conversion set and left towards the back, the Burnerd half-depth body 6-inch 4-jaw chuck

Standard ML7 headstock detail

Carriage assembly clearly showing the extended bridge casting on the end of the cross slide that gave a useful increase in travel; this was of special benefit when using a vertical milling slide. The micrometer dial fitted is the later machined and engraved type.


	ML7 bed numbers started at 1001, so this is the 183rd. machine made. The number can be found stamped at the tailstock-end of the bed, on the rear vertical shear. If a letter "R" is present, this indicated a bed that has been reground at the Myford factory

	Countershaft drive unit from a very early ML7. The cut-out sections in the upright were filled in on later models and the full length hinge pin through the base of the motor platform changed to two short studs.

ML7 drive system with rubber-bushed, "resilient-mount" motor - which is by far the best type to use.

Clutch equipped ML7 with changewheel cover removed and belt guard lifted

Rodney Vertical Milling attachment. Clamped to the bed, the drive was taken to the miller from a No. 2 Morse taper plug in the headstock via. a flexible coupling. A drilling quill and fine down-feed were fitted and the nose of the miller was fitted with a standard Myford spindle nose thread. A smaller, simpler version was also produced without the quick-action drill feed.

An ML7 converted for production work and fitted with a lever-operated collet chuck, cross slide mounted turret attachment and a cut-off slide. Visible just behind the bed is the top part of a multi-stop unit, used to provide a dead-length stop to the saddle movement. Besides the items illustrated, a much larger bed-mounted capstan unit was available with built-in stops and auto indexing. Some lathes were sold ready converted for production work with the screwcutting gear, compound slides and tailstock removed - and sometimes fitted with the Tri-Leva spindle speed selector and a two-speed motor.

	Myford C7 Capstan. An early standard-production version (identifiable by the screw-feed cut-off slide) fitted with a Tri-leva spindle speed selector, standard bed-mounted capstan head, coolant unit and two-speed electric motor.

Early headstock-bearing oiler - replaced by transparent drip-feed oilers in the late 1940s

The lovely "Acorn" knob fitted to the tumble reverse and backgear levers